Monday, December 08, 2014

GOETHE: Faust (Scene 16: Faust the Theologian)

Not long after Gretchen meets Faust she asks him a simple
question. “Tell me how you feel about
religion.” Like many modern people Faust
basically says: I’m not a religious person but I’m a spiritual person. Gretchen isn’t satisfied with that
answer. “That isn’t right, one must
believe!” So like many intellectuals
Faust tries to patiently explain the profound truths of spirituality to a
simple believer in “religion.” Spirituality
embraces a notion of God as “the All-Embracing, the All-Sustaining… call it
what you will. Call it Love! Happiness!
Soul! God! I (Faust) have no name for it. Feeling is everything.”

Well. Gretchen isn’t
a scholar like Faust. But she’s not
stupid either. Her response to Faust’s
theology of spirituality is much more direct than his roundabout approach to
God: “It sounds all right when you say it that way, but just the same there’s
something wrong with it.” And what’s
wrong with Faust being a “spiritual” person instead of a “religious”
person? “Because you’re not a
Christian,” says Gretchen. In Gretchen’s
world “feeling” isn’t everything. It’s
not even the most important thing. For
Gretchen the most important thing is to believe the right things in the right
way. What Faust is proposing is a god
without a name. Gretchen wants something
more solid. If Faust wants to impress
Gretchen here’s what she wants to hear from him. “I believe in God, the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.” If he
really wants to impress her he would add “…and in Jesus Christ, his only Son,
our Lord.” This is the Apostle’s Creed,
Gretchen’s theology.

What’s the difference between Faust’s spirituality and
Gretchen’s religion? Faust is looking
for an experience; Gretchen is looking for a relationship. Faust’s spirituality is so flexible he can’t
commit himself to even set down a name for god; for Gretchen God is so personal
she can call him Father. Does it really
matter which view we hold or which path we take? Consider the context of the play and we can
see if it matters. When Faust is cutting
a deal with Mephistopheles they discuss what will happen “over there” in the
afterlife once Faust dies. Faust says,
“What do I care about your “over there”?
Faust has a flexible spirituality.
For Faust God is “Love!
Happiness! Soul!” So he’s not too much concerned with the
details of the contract Mephistopheles is proposing. How does Gretchen’s religion respond to a
creature like Mephistopheles? She tells
Faust, “I detest him from the bottom of my heart. Nothing in all my life has sickened me so
much as that man’s loathsome face… I have a secret horror of that man… there
isn’t anything alive that he can love… when he comes it shuts up my very
soul.” This sets up a stark contrast
between distinct theologies. Faust’s
spirituality is intellectual; Gretchen’s religion is instinctual. Faust wants to know God with his mind;
Gretchen wants to know God with her whole being. For Faust God is complex; for Gretchen God is
simple.

Mephistopheles overhears the whole exchange. When Gretchen is gone he taunts Faust. “Ah, Doctor, you have just been catechized…
These girls take a very lively interest in learning whether someone’s simple
and pious in the good old-fashioned way.”
And it’s true that Gretchen is simple and pious. But Mephistopheles adds a cynical twist. “If he minds there, they think, he’ll mind us
too.” In other words, if a man is
obedient to God he’ll also be obedient to his wife. This is why Gretchen loathes Mephistopheles
and it’s why Mephistopheles loathes Gretchen’s religion. Faust’s home-grown theology can be easily
twisted into evil. Gretchen’s religion
is her fortress against it.